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[00:00:00] Meghan Sacks: This podcast contains sensitive topics and discussions. Listener discretion is advised a mother’s worst nightmare, and her grief leads to her ongoing quest for justice. This is the Ruth Markel story with a tribute to her son Dan Markel.
[00:00:38] Amy, today’s case is one that I am very proud to bring you and listeners. I know that you and members of our audience are probably familiar with the Dan Markel story. The story of a beloved young man, a father, an excellent lawyer, a son, a friend who was the victim of a terrible crime that made national [00:01:00] headlines in 2014.
[00:01:01] Megan, did you
[00:01:02] Amy Shlosberg: listen to Over My Dead Body Podcast?
[00:01:04] Meghan Sacks: I absolutely did. Season one of Over My Dead Body covered this case. It was also featured on 2020 Dateline and by many other media sources. So while this case has been heavily covered in many outlets, There’s so much more to the story than what was published, and today we’re honored to have Dan’s mother, Ruth Markel, on our show to talk about what it’s like to be a homicide survivor.
[00:01:30] She’ll be sharing with us the story of Dan’s life, his assassination, the shocking information revealed by the investigation, how she’s coped, and the path that she’s taken to right these wrongs. And for those listeners who wanna delve deeper into this story, Ruth has written a memoir about her experience living through this, titled The Unveiling, but before this tragedy brought turmoil to her life.
[00:01:54] Ruth identified as a successful businesswoman and devoted mother who had raised two [00:02:00] successful children. Here she is describing her family.
[00:02:03] Ruth Markel: Shelly is three years older than Dan, and she’s much more, um, in her early childhood, much more responsible, very good daughter, and very also interested in reading.
[00:02:15] And today she has an mba. And also a law degree. So she’s just thrived all the way through. And her personality over Dan over the three years was really to really be the big sister and he accepted it. He was, he never, you know, like sort of, uh, in any way gave her any challenges. Because he was a bum. So Danny who was born also in Montreal was Dennis the Menace.
[00:02:41] It’s very funny cuz people don’t believe it. So he was really, Dennis the menace as a very young child and he read, all he did is read comics and he, his toy was his two toys, his two toys, a mop. And a stepladder. And the stepladder was to go up to the cabinets in the kitchen at 18 months [00:03:00] and two years, not for cookies.
[00:03:02] He kind of liked the idea of the exercise of it, I think, and he went up and down numerous times and that was his sort of life around most of the time.
[00:03:11] Meghan Sacks: I love that. Ruth calls Dan, Dennis the Menace. Mm-hmm. I’ve heard her say that before, but you wouldn’t think so because you know what I know of Dan Markel is, you know, this very accomplished, serious lawyer, but he was.
[00:03:23] Kind of a scotch as a child, and he was an active child and he loved comic books and reading, and that stayed with him throughout his childhood and adulthood. He also really loved sports, drama, music, dancing. He was incredibly well-rounded, but he also was responsible and he worked at different jobs to earn money in his high school years.
[00:03:42] Mm-hmm. Now, Dan’s dream was to attend either Harvard, Yale, or Princeton to practice law. So, you know, basically the top three here in the United States, and Ruth and her husband were a bit concerned that Dan was only applying to these top schools. So [00:04:00] Dan appeased them and also applied to a Canadian law school as a backup.
[00:04:04] But to Dan’s excitement, he was accepted to Harvard and he got to live his dream experiencing many wonderful academic opportunities. And travels throughout his college years before he
[00:04:16] Ruth Markel: even left. He, um, he did a year in, um, in Israel. He did a year in England. Um, also when he, when he picked up another, uh, Degree.
[00:04:26] He worked in New York. He clerked in in San Francisco later. So, uh, you asked about the relationship. So all of these times that he was, he was studying and traveling, he basically kept very active contact and he came home frequently. He was very centered in his family life. And in his Jewish life as well.
[00:04:47] And so he would come home for the holidays and we would go there. So we, you know, I had the benefit of visiting him, you know, in England, in Jerusalem, in New York. Danny left early, so Danny left at about 18. [00:05:00] He never came back. What’s interesting is even when he was looking for. How he’s gonna get into Harvard.
[00:05:06] The internet wasn’t even yet established in, in this period of time, but when it did, he was in in England and he would write all these long emails describing, I think he, he was a good writer and he was a good writer on two levels. An academic writer of which he’s very acclaimed for today still. In fact, they just put out some kind of a chart recently and they show that.
[00:05:30] He’s still mo one of the, the second highest acknowledged published author in law reviews and journals, um, and cited
[00:05:39] Meghan Sacks: even today. You know, really what we get from this is Ruth was obviously a very proud mother. Dan had achievements, he was independent, and as Ruth indicates, Dan was also very much connected and proud of his Jewish faith.
[00:05:52] He was a diligent practitioner of Judaism and adhered pretty closely. To its religious tenets. His faith [00:06:00] was a huge part of his identity and a very important part of his personal life. After Dan graduated from Harvard, he began working as an attorney at a boutique law firm in Washington dc and he was on his way to a quick partnership.
[00:06:13] But I think it’s safe to say that as with most people starting out in their careers, Dan was also looking for companionship. He signed up for J Date. Do you remember J Date?
[00:06:22] Amy Shlosberg: I sure do remember J Date. I’m not sure that I was ever on there, but my mother was.
[00:06:26] Meghan Sacks: Was she really? Wow. Oh, okay. J Date is a dating website for people seeking Jewish partners, and on this site he came across a young woman by the name of Wendy Adelson.
[00:06:38] Wendy Adelson was also in the field of law. She was finishing her degree and was described as a beautiful, smart, and charismatic woman. Wendy grew up in Miami, Florida with her parents, Donna and Harvey Adelson, and two older brothers, Rob and Charlie. Their father was a dentist who made a family business of dentistry.
[00:06:59] His [00:07:00] son, Charlie, became a dentist just like his dad. But Rob went on to become a doctor, so it kind of seemed like a good match, right? Dan and Wendy both came from successful families. They were in similar fields, and they seemed to have a lot in common. She’d actually appeared kind of funny. Side note she’d appeared on the show, the game show.
[00:07:17] Do you remember a weakest link? Yeah. Refresh my memory.
[00:07:20] Amy Shlosberg: It sounds familiar, but I can’t think
[00:07:22] Meghan Sacks: about what it was. I, I don’t re I remember the name, but I don’t remember what it, what the show was actually about, but, oh, you don’t know. Okay. You know, she’s on a game show. She was reportedly a very fun and funny person.
[00:07:33] The pair began dating and during this time they both received an invitation at Tallahassee Law School to teach. So this kind of all seems serendipitous, right? Like it’s meant to be. That’s
[00:07:43] Amy Shlosberg: so rare for two people to get an appointment at the same school.
[00:07:47] Meghan Sacks: Very rare couples sometimes will negotiate that. I think what happened as well was that Dan was able to negotiate Wendy’s position.
[00:07:54] It was a little bit different though because Dan, as I’ll discussed, was on a tenure track and I believe Wendy’s might have been more of a [00:08:00] contract position or a lecture position. But nevertheless, they both did receive invitations and they also, Dan and Wendy also got engaged around this time. And the Markels.
[00:08:10] And the Adelsons were about to become one big family. So I was curious. I asked Ruth what she thought about Wendy when she first met her. We met her a few
[00:08:19] Ruth Markel: times, and our initial impression was positive. She was a nice, young, warm personality, let’s call it. She, she interacted in a very positive manner. And, uh, we never had any second thoughts about her.
[00:08:35] And, um, you know, and then they, and time progressed and they, they were in love, you know, so that was you, you’re, you’re happy, right? Anytime one of your children finds somebody and, and it looked okay.
[00:08:47] Meghan Sacks: So, as Ruth describes Amy, she liked Wendy when she first met her. I think Wendy makes a good first impression on most people, to be honest.
[00:08:54] But there was trouble early on because Dan wanted the wedding. Remember, they’re engaged now. Mm-hmm. He really wanted the [00:09:00] wedding to be kosher and it ended up not being so, and I think that’s because the Adelsons handled the catering as a pretty staunch follower of Jewish custom. This was really upsetting to Dan.
[00:09:11] Did Dan keep kosher?
[00:09:12] Amy Shlosberg: Yes. Is that why he wanted it? Absolutely. Oh, so that seems, uh, out of respect for your future spouse. That seems like something that you should
[00:09:20] Meghan Sacks: do.
[00:09:21] Amy Shlosberg: My brother and his family are Orthodox, and when they come to my home, and I’m not even talking about a wedding when they come to my home.
[00:09:28] I make sure that we can accommodate them. I couldn’t imagine having a fiance who wouldn’t respect that at a wedding that’s so
[00:09:37] Meghan Sacks: disrespectful. It was very upsetting to Dan, and I think this sort of set the stage for a divide early on between Dan and Wendy’s mother, Donna Adelson in particular, but also with Wendy herself.
[00:09:50] Let’s just say, as you pointed out, this was not a great start, but nonetheless, The newlywed seemed happy and they moved to Tallahassee to work at Florida State [00:10:00] University. As I mentioned, Dan was offered a full-time position on the tenure track while Wendy was offered a clinical law position at F S U as well.
[00:10:08] I don’t really heard of clinical law positions before this. Have you? Um, yes,
[00:10:12] Amy Shlosberg: I believe a clinical law position is like if you’re working at a school that has like an Innocence Project, that would be a legal clinic. So you’re working like you’re teaching, but you’re also like supervising
[00:10:22] Meghan Sacks: students in the clinic.
[00:10:23] Is that right? Yeah, that’s correct. It’s kind of like working on real life cases, so Correct, yes. You might be working in Cases doing Innocence Project or you know, some different type of case work, which I think is pretty cool. Tallahassee has more of a small southern feel to it than I think Wendy was used to though, cuz Wendy was raised in Miami.
[00:10:40] But Dan really liked this small college town and while the marriage had started off bumpy, you know, things seemed to smooth out for the couple. And Wendy and Dan welcomed two boys into their family, Benjamin and Lincoln in 2009 and 2010. Stan reportedly loved being a father and doted on the boys, and Dan’s [00:11:00] career was thriving too.
[00:11:01] He had become one of the most well-known law professors in Florida and really across the country. He loved a good argument, a good debate, and he was a very active scholar with many achievements, which included, he was a founder of the website, profs blog for law professors. And I believe that that blog still exists today.
[00:11:20] Megan
[00:11:21] Amy Shlosberg: wasn’t, you might say this later, but wasn’t like Zack’s husband know him or didn’t they work together somehow on that blog?
[00:11:28] Meghan Sacks: Yes, so we have a friend, uh, who we got our PhD with. Zack and his husband David Lat, uh, did know Dan and was friendly with him. And David has published on his case a lot actually.
[00:11:40] So yeah, we kind of have the couple degrees of separation here. So, while Dan seemed to be on top of the world, Wendy was home more with the boys, really missing the life that she had in Miami where she had, you know, lived and graduated law school. And I think Wendy also felt like Dan’s career was just overshadowing her own.
[00:11:59] So the [00:12:00] couple’s relationship began to sour, and this was really for a few reasons, according to Ruth. Now
[00:12:06] Ruth Markel: Donna is Wendy’s mother who visited frequently, and Donna then goes and tells, The daycare’s place, they can have anything. Don’t limit their, um, nourishment to anything other than what you’re providing.
[00:12:22] And in other words, don’t respect the parents’ rules. So that was kind of already step one in a. Sort of starting to edge into some conflict and marriage issues. Wendy was not as happy in Tallahassee as when she finished school and staying there. So now we’re getting into the second big issue, which is geographical mobility, as I call it Now, as time progressed, Wendy narrowed it down that it had to come to Florida.
[00:12:51] In other words, she was less interested. And maybe going to Arizona or California or other places. And therefore the only place she really wanted to go [00:13:00] was where her parents were. And also pretty much Donna kind of, I would say, provoked the issue that they had to get out of Tallahassee. And as kind of quick as possible.
[00:13:12] So this put a real damper on the relationship at this point. I think Wendy has changed her own mind about a few things.
[00:13:21] Meghan Sacks: They had agreed that they would relocate and that Florida was fine, but now all of a sudden, Tallahassee isn’t really for Wendy, and it seemed like according to Ruth, Donna, Was really pushing Wendy to move back to Miami.
[00:13:32] It also seems, again, Donna was interfering with the kids at daycare. What she was talking about was the fact that the kids kept kosher at daycare. But Donna, when she came, would go visit until the daycare. Just give them whatever. It’s fine. They don’t need to keep kosher. That’s very disrespectful. Yeah. I did ask her about this later on cuz I was so curious about this.
[00:13:51] Also, you know, Wendy and Dan met on J Date. They were looking for Jewish partners. I understand that they might not have adhered as closely to the [00:14:00] practices, but they certainly were of Jewish religion and understood the practices and the importance of them to Dan and to others. So Wendy reportedly felt lonely and she began working on a novel titled, this Is Our Story, which pretty much centered on.
[00:14:17] Her marriage because it was about a woman who falls in love with a husband, and this novel really seemed to mirror her real life. And I don’t think, I think one of the problems that happened also was that Dan never read the book, and it kind of crushed Wendy. You know, Wendy was unhappy and lonely. Dan was just the opposite.
[00:14:34] He had a thriving career and a family he loved. As part of his job at F S U, he was able to do these very cool colloquiums and he was able to travel.
[00:14:45] Amy Shlosberg: Doesn’t this story have hints of Brynn Hartman? I know we recently did that, so maybe it’s like fresh on mine, but isn’t it, it seems similar that she was upset that her husband was kind of moving forward and she wasn’t cuz she was staying
[00:14:56] Meghan Sacks: home with the kids.
[00:14:57] I absolutely agree. Yeah. I didn’t even think about that until you said that. [00:15:00] So let’s hear from Ruth A. Little bit about what Dan was doing. Danny
[00:15:04] Ruth Markel: settled in, you see, Danny had a good arrangement at Tallahassee. He, she had a job, but she, but he was, you know, a professor. He got tenured. He then had a very good arrangement to go to New York and do COLLOQUIALS each month with all the other, I think it was NYU and, and Columbia.
[00:15:22] I don’t remember who. There was about five universities where he went. On a monthly basis for some of their faculty and for some young lawyers. So he was striving there and he was a member of the synagogue. He would take the boys to join. So, so, so I think he found, A life there. They had a lot of friends there as well.
[00:15:41] But I think for her it was, she felt sort of that she’s gonna end up
[00:15:45] Meghan Sacks: staying there. So I think Wendy was feeling like they were gonna stay and that was the problem. But Dan was feeling like, this is great, he’s thriving, he’s got a great job, and friends and a community. Mm-hmm. So they were very much on opposite ends here.
[00:15:57] Wendy, again felt stuck and [00:16:00] she was becoming more and more unhappy with this situation. So much so Amy, that while Dan was at a colloquium in New York in September, 2012, Wendy told Dan over the phone that she wasn’t happy and that she wanted to separate. Wow. Now, Dan pleaded with Wendy to please discuss this with him.
[00:16:18] When he got home, he canceled one of his lectures. He left early to return, but when he got home, he realized that Wendy had other plans in mind. Wendy and the kids were gone along with most of the furniture. Oh, wow. And there were divorce papers waiting for him on his bed. Wow. That’s not the right way to do things, I don’t think so.
[00:16:39] Wendy also took half of the money from the bank accounts. Dan was devastated and he tried to work things out. He asked her to come home, agreed to work on certain things. He tried for about a year, but Wendy made it clear that she was not coming back. That she was unhappy and she no longer wanted to be married to him, and things got very [00:17:00] ugly when it came to the terms of custody of their two boys, as they often do.
[00:17:04] Wendy filed a motion to relocate her children to Miami. Remember that’s where she wanted to be. Mm-hmm. And I think she was very surprised when the court said no. She tried very hard to fight the decision, but ultimately the judge ruled. That Wendy would have to stay in Tallahassee and that she and Dan would share 50 50 custody.
[00:17:24] And I, I have to tell you, I ap, I applaud that decision because I have seen fathers struggle to obtain the same custody rights. And I think as an equal parent, it was great that the judge recognized that the boys should be with both of their parents. The judge felt, well, the boys had been raised here, and there’s no reason to take them away from their full-time father.
[00:17:44] Now this infuriated Wendy’s mother, Donna, with Donna saying awful things about Dan and suggesting that Wendy needed to take control from Gibbs. That was a. Kind of a not so nice nickname, I guess, that they gave him. And what does that mean? I don’t know [00:18:00] what it means. When Wendy was asked at one point, she said it was just something that they called him when she felt he was being intimidating, to make him seem not so scary.
[00:18:08] It’s clearly a derogatory name, whatever it is. So Donna even suggested, listen to this, that Wendy should have the boys baptized in a Catholic church. What? Because she knew how upset it would make Dan and maybe. That would make him so mad that he would agree to let her move to Miami if he would not go through with it.
[00:18:26] Wow. Yeah. Let’s hear Ruth discuss this kind of disregard that the Adelson seemed to have for Dan and his faith, the
[00:18:34] Ruth Markel: first part of it. Um, a disrespect, you know, I think at some point, much later on. You know, Donna w writes, uh, you know, something about that Dan is a z lot, like extreme. He’s far from extreme.
[00:18:48] He’s not even, you know, in our religion. Like even if you were even more observant, you wouldn’t drive on Saturday. You wouldn’t do anything on Saturday, and he never did that. I mean, his, he would like to go [00:19:00] to synagogue in the morning and play tennis at one o’clock, two o’clock and drive there and do anything like that.
[00:19:05] So it was really what could have been a very workable arrangement. Just had a lot of disruption. And then I think in particular, I think Donna just wanted them to end and get the family and the children really to, uh, to where sh they were living.
[00:19:22] Meghan Sacks: So Ruth is basically saying she thinks that she was just trying to disrupt this family and do what she could to.
[00:19:28] Put a wedge in between them so she could get Wendy and the kids home to her. Yep. That seems pretty clear. Yeah, I think so. Things really began to escalate too, between Dan and Donna because Donna was, you know, saying awful things to her, grandsons about their father when he wasn’t present. She called him names and, and Dan was really upset.
[00:19:47] He ended up filing a motion that Donna should be supervised when with his children. To keep this from happening again because he did not want her to corrupt the children. However, after a year or so, it seemed that the battle was cooling off and [00:20:00] life was getting back to normal for both Dan and Wendy and the couple’s.
[00:20:03] Divorce was finalized in 2013. Now Wendy moved on meeting an another F S U professor by the name of Jeff Lakos, who interestingly, Amy, I know you’re gonna look it up, had a very similar look to Dan. Oh, yeah, yeah. I looked at them. I thought that they looked alike. Dan also met a new woman who he really liked and things seemed to be working out, but the Markel family had no idea how bad things were.
[00:20:27] Just about to get. On the morning of July 18th, 2014, Dan Markel had just dropped his son’s Benjamin and Lincoln off at school near his Tallahassee home. He stopped at the gym as he often did, and then proceeded to drive back home. He called his uncle, remember Uncle Lazar, to wish him get this a happy 97th birthday.
[00:20:48] Oh, wow. And then sadly, Ruth spoke to Dan for the last time on this morning. This is
[00:20:54] Ruth Markel: now July 18th that, um, a little, uh, probably about 10 [00:21:00] 20. And he called all the time. One of the things how he, we kept up this relationship was he called always when he was traveling, and particularly when kids are not in the car.
[00:21:09] And so his, his typical call would be, uh, and coming back from the gym, I’m coming back from the university. And we would talk and he would pull in to the driveway, uh, of his home and then say goodbye. I’m home that day, July 18th, which I’m not religious, but I have to say thank God he had to make another call and he had to make another call to, uh, another person who was a, um, teacher at a charter school, which is, was coming up as conversation about where Benjamin should go to school.
[00:21:41] And he said, ma, he says, I have to get off the phone. I have to make a call. So we ended our call, you know, shorter and he made the other call and then unbelievable. He was shot at about 11 o’clock on July
[00:21:55] Meghan Sacks: 18th. So Dan makes this other phone call right after speaking to his mother, and then at [00:22:00] about 11:00 AM he turns onto his street Trescott and pulled his car into the garage.
[00:22:06] Now, Dan was on the phone with this staff member from his son’s charter school, and he told this person that there was a car in his driveway that he didn’t recognize, but nevertheless, he pulled into the garage while still on the phone when he did a gunman, jumped out of the passenger seat of this vehicle and approached Dan quickly.
[00:22:23] Who was still sitting in the driver’s side of his vehicle, shockingly the man then shot Dan twice in the head through the car window. The panicked person on the phone with Dan called nine one one immediately after Dan was not responding to him. A neighbor also called reporting that they just heard gunshots and that Dan was in his car bleeding and unresponsive.
[00:22:44] While this neighbor also reported seeing a light colored vehicle that looked like a Prius leaving Dan’s home. So note we have some information right away. First responders showed up quickly and Dan was still alive, but he was in very bad shape. He was [00:23:00] unresponsive and he was bleeding terribly. There was glass everywhere from the gunshots hitting the window.
[00:23:05] Dan was rushed to the hospital, but the doctors simply couldn’t save him. The same day, the police called Wendy and asked her to come to the police department. Telling her that Dan was shot and that he was in the hospital and while still alive, he likely would not survive this injury. I’m,
[00:23:21] Amy Shlosberg: I’m assuming they call Wendy at this point because she’s the next of kin.
[00:23:24] Even though they’re divorced, they weren’t suspecting
[00:23:26] Meghan Sacks: anything. You know, let’s be honest, they probably bring in a spouse for both reasons. Regardless, she was brought in pretty quickly for questioning. And even though Wendy’s lawyer, Amy, I don’t know if you remember this, but she spoke to the police without an attorney for quite some time, several hours.
[00:23:43] I encourage people, I mean, even if we can’t ascribe guilt or, or not guilt based on an interrogation, I always encourage people to look at them and you know, see what you think. I think it’s possible that
[00:23:53] Amy Shlosberg: she didn’t ask for an attorney because she, since she is an attorney, she probably felt like she had a handle on it, especially if she
[00:23:59] Meghan Sacks: had nothing to [00:24:00] hide.
[00:24:00] Correct. But as an attorney, she would also know that. Anything you say can and will be used against you at a later time. But you’re right. Maybe she had nothing to hide. Police asked a crying, Wendy, where she was and she said that she had someone, a technician from Best Buy at her home fixing her television.
[00:24:18] This was an appointment that oddly her mother had arranged for her a week prior to it. There were a number of phone calls during that time when Dan was shot between Donna and Wendy. Wendy and her older brother, Charlie, Donna and Charlie. Now, hey, they were a very close family, so this might not mean anything at all, but it’s important to note.
[00:24:39] Wendy also told the police that she was at home writing a paper At the time Dan was shot, which she could provide timestamps on her computer to support. And around 12:45 PM Wendy had gone to a liquor store to buy Bullet Bourbon for which she was able to provide a receipt and then she’d met friends at lunch.
[00:24:58] So Wendy has a [00:25:00] solid alibi. Mm-hmm. But I will say this, Amy, I found it a little off-putting that she had seemed to have a lot of documentation for her morning. Nevertheless, Wendy cried during the interrogation asking who would do this, but she was also very cooperative turning over her phone, allowing police to take fingerprints and answering all of the investigator’s questions.
[00:25:20] She admitted that Dan had caused her a lot of grief, and she was candid through the interview about the ugliness of their divorce and how she wanted to move to Miami, but she claimed that she would never do anything to harm him. She did tell the police that Dan was emotionally abusive, which was a claim that she had made to her friends.
[00:25:37] At other points, and while in the interview, Wendy asked if she could call her mother, telling her, and the police said, okay, and so Wendy told Donna that Dan had been shot. When Wendy got off the phone, she said it was a relief that her mother sounded so surprised. That’s interesting. Yes, I saw your face on that one.
[00:25:56] She kind of suggested that they would have a motive to [00:26:00] harm Dan in this interview, but then she contradicted herself, but they would never do that. They would never actually do anything she said to harm him. She did also tell the police that her brother, Charlie, Had made a joke about hiring a hitman to kill Dan, but instead got her a new television as a divorce present.
[00:26:19] Okay.
[00:26:20] Amy Shlosberg: So I’m just gonna say here that if Wendy’s family had something to do with this, and I, I, if Wendy’s family had something to do with this, I don’t believe that she knew about it because she’s just throwing
[00:26:32] Meghan Sacks: them under the bus. If so, That’s very true. Let’s see what you think. Later at the end, I’ll ask you the, maybe we’ll ask the same question.
[00:26:39] Uh, please. By the way, found that a very surprising statement, what she said about Charlie. Mm-hmm. And when they asked Wendy if she knew anyone who might have a real problem with Dan, she told them about her relationship with that F S U professor, Jeff Laco. Remember the one she’d recently been seeing?
[00:26:54] Wendy said that Jeff did not really like the way that Dan treated her. And Wendy asked, oh my [00:27:00] gosh, what if he did it? So law enforcement really had no idea what to suspect at this point. There was kind of a number of suspects. And what about the Markel family? Ruth and Philip got the call while Dan was still alive, but they were stunned hearing that he wasn’t gonna survive.
[00:27:17] I got
[00:27:17] Ruth Markel: this call at five 30. That Dan was shot. He came from, from a rabbi at in Tallahassee where Danny Frequented and he called to say, um, that he was in the emergency room. And that Dan was not gonna make it. And then he put me on with the emergency doctor. But he did like what you would call, we don’t call it that, we don’t use that term, but, you know, Dan’s last, right?
[00:27:41] So the, the rabbi had seen him, the, the hospital never even, uh, suggested trying to save him. Uh, they really just needed the bullets and other stuff, but they didn’t even, there was no like conversation about, Ending his life or [00:28:00] not, they made the decision and um, and he died at, uh, at 2:00 AM on July 19th,
[00:28:07] Meghan Sacks: tragically.
[00:28:07] So, as Ruth explains, it was significant to her and her family that a rabbi did stay with Dan and did perform as she said, maybe that it, she doesn’t call it that, but somewhat of his last rights. And Amy Dan’s murder had a profound effect on everyone, people who knew him personally, and even those who didn’t.
[00:28:25] There was an outpouring of support for Ruth and her family after it was made public that Dan died, friends and family from all over the country, and I think other countries really rallied around the markels and offered their help. Ruth discusses this overwhelming response to Dan’s story. Shelly and
[00:28:45] Ruth Markel: I come to Tallahassee on the Saturday in the afternoon, and Phil already arrived before, and the synagogue where Dan attended had a memorial service.
[00:28:57] And what was amazing at the memorials all, a [00:29:00] lot of his students now came from Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, to this memorial service, and in the hallway one of them. Said to me, do you know why there’s this ground swelling all over the world? And I said, really? I don’t know. Like, you know, I said, I’m amazed.
[00:29:15] Cause I mean, by this time there were memorials at Harvard, there were memorials in Cambridge, England. There were memorials in New York, in California, Stanford, all of the places had really, and in Israel and, and Germany, and had, had acknowledged, you know, that, that he had passed away. So I said, explain it to me.
[00:29:33] He says, well, here’s his version. He says, when we were all younger and students, we had. Met Dan through prof’s blog. Then when we go to the university, Dan had written a book with Ethan Lee and another person on family interest in criminal law. And then he had published and he had very strong opinions like on the death penalty and different things.
[00:29:58] So he had not only had he [00:30:00] published, but he had a widespread following on some of the positions. In law, I’m talking about in law that he had taken. And then everywhere he went, he lived in all these cities. He had created these communities. We used to joke him that he had joke with him that he had a hundred best friends, but it was actually true.
[00:30:20] He did have some of these people. So that was really, yes, it was really, we’re grateful we were, you know, totally, um, you know, not expecting anything cuz we’re, don’t forget, we’re in sh in shock. And, and then after, um, the media surge. So it’s not only the initial outburst of all these, um, memorials, but the media surge was huge.
[00:30:46] Meghan Sacks: So what Ruth’s saying is basically she was just totally overwhelmed by all of the people that reached out all of the, oh my gosh. The cities, states, the countries that set up memorials for Dan. All of these students that she [00:31:00] heard from mentees friends who memorialized him around the globe. But then she was also shocked again when the media picked up this story, bringing Dan’s case, national Awareness,
[00:31:12] Ruth Markel: a, a BBC 2020 did two hours, Dateline did two hours Inside Edition People Magazine.
[00:31:18] Uh, then there’s a podcast by Wondery, but you know, it’s, and they’re doing a TV series from the Wondery project as it stands. So there is this certainly a big
[00:31:29] Meghan Sacks: following. Yeah, this was a media sensation and continues to be, I have my
[00:31:34] Amy Shlosberg: hypotheses why, I think it was a media sensation, but what are
[00:31:37] Meghan Sacks: yours? No, you first.
[00:31:40] Amy Shlosberg: I think the fact that he was successful, you know, he had a lot of visibility within his little field, but I think as it goes further, I. Because I do know some of the story. I think once you start hearing what some of the theories are, that’s what drew people in because it’s just so
[00:31:57] Meghan Sacks: convoluted. I think so too.
[00:31:58] It’s almost, and you’re looking [00:32:00] at Wendy and she’s very beautiful and her family and thinking they, these are normal people, so as we discuss them and their relationships, yeah. As you said, things start to unravel. So I agree with you. So amid this media storm though, Amy, the police, were trying to find a suspect.
[00:32:14] So they start with Wendy’s boyfriend, Jeff Laco, who also. He’s an attorney but agreed to be interviewed without a lawyer. In his interview, Jeff described the reasons he was attracted to Wendy, such as her charisma, her beauty, her intelligence. So it was easy to see why he was attracted to her. But he also described how things went very wrong.
[00:32:35] He said that they spent a lot of time together for six months and he was would’ve done anything for her, but he said it was a contentious breakup with him, admitting that he suspected and voiced his concerns regularly, that Wendy was seeing other men and that she was denying it. But apparently a big fight on this issue led to a pretty certain demise of this relationship.
[00:32:56] He also admitted to police that he would’ve liked to kick Dan’s [00:33:00] ass for how he treated Wendy. But luckily for Jeff, he had a good alibi. He was out of town at the time of Dan’s murder, and he was able to prove it. So the police ruled him out pretty quickly as a suspect. However, Jeff said he wanted to tell the police something, but he was worried for his safety.
[00:33:17] So why would he be worried about his safety? Well, listeners for that, you’ll have to wait until next week in part two. You’ll also find out who was arrested and who goes to trial for the murder of Dan Markel. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode, and we’ll catch you next time on Women in Crime.
[00:33:36] Women in Crime is hosted by Megan Sachs and Amy Schlossberg. Our producer and editor is James Varga. Music composition is by Dessert Media. If you enjoy the show, please remember to subscribe and leave a review. You can also support the show through Patreon where you can get access to additional ad-free content, such as virtual, happy hours, and an extra full length episode each month.
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